Travel Day

The travel day has arrived. We packed up some of the travel contents last night and alas all of the gifts would not fit. Actually a great many of the gifts would not fit. As Ryan said in the wee hours of last night "we should have planned this better". Madeline did not seem to be dissappointed when I broke the news this morning. She didn't even bat an eye when she said "that's okay". We'll have fun opening gifts when we get home next week. Just a few hours until we roll out and we're hoping for decent weather. Still no mouse and we're taking the car but I did tell Ryan that I do not want any items touching the floor of the car. Ick!

Mouse

On Friday I decided to get a couple of errands done. It was a snow day and I was home in the morning. Earlier in the week Grandma JoLene picked up Annie and when she dropped Annie off she left the carseat in the garage. I waited until Friday to re-install the carseat. As I was installing the carseat a (very large) mouse (probably around four inches long minus the tail) crawled out of the carseat and scurried under the passenger seat of the car. After composing myself and informing the girls that a mouse had taken up residency in our car I tried to get the little booger to come out so I could shoo it out of the car. To no avail. My friend left work to help and the best we could do was scare it up into the dash. Since then I put two humane catch and release style traps in the car, however, the mouse hasn't taken the bait. There are several mouse turds right around the mouth of the traps but unfortunately no trapped mouse. We're now in limbo as to which vehicle to drive to Colorado tomorrow. We may drive a car, or we may drive a truck. Only time will tell.

Images of Home

Today is the two year anniversary of my mother's death.

This angel has been passed down from my paternal grandmother. It was very special to my dad.

We are just finishing up the last details before we drive to Colorado. It has been very cold here but even still the girls have been having a blast in the snow. Today they went sledding despite the 1 degree temperature and even colder wind chill. The cold isn't anything that a little layering can't conquer.

Ryan

Ryan
Serious Ryan

Playful Ryan

Ten Kilometers

Just wanted to add that I ran 10k yesterday. My goal was to run 10k before the end of the year. Yay! Next milestone is 10 miles which I will try to run before my birthday. It shouldn't be difficult but it's nice to have a goal!

Busiest day is over

We survived our busiest day! Madeline had yoga and dance, Annie had dance then Madeline and I met up for the candlelight luncheon where we had a great time. A little rest in the afternoon preceded the trip to grandma and grandpa's while Ryan and I went to a holiday party. The holiday party was a riot. They had a white elephant gift exchange that was so funny I probably lost weight from laughing. We went home with a half broken toaster and a matching leapard set that was custom made for another couple's wedding night. They tell us they've never been worn/used. Regardless we have plans to bring them back to the exchange again next year. It was our first white elephant gift exchange experience and we enjoyed it quite a bit.

Sunday Ryan took the girls out and went shopping for me. I still need to take the girls out for Ryan.

We're ramping up for our holiday party this weekend. We decided to host a small gathering for the neighbors this year. Maybe next year we'll opt for a bigger guest list. Annie and Madeline are headed over to grandma and grandpa's for the evening so that adults can have fun. I've catered most of the food but am making some desserts for the party. I hope people come hungry because I have dinner for them!

December

Well it's officially December. It has snowed twice and it's friggin' cold outside. The gifts are wrapped and under the tree with only a couple things left to buy. The girls and I do need to go out and buy a present for Ryan. I forget what Maddie wanted to get him, but I think it was along similar lines to the dump truck she wanted to get him when she was three. We'll see what we end up with. In about a week Madeline has her holiday shop at school where she will pick out gifts for all of us. Last year's gifts were pretty cute. We still play with the fluffy six foot long snake.

Last night we had houseguests. Teresa, Ashley and Audrey came over and spent the night. Teresa had choir practice at the orpheum and the girls played all night long. They all had fun and the adults stayed up pretty late chatting. *yawn*

Today Annie had her first winter gala program at school. Unfortunately due to some horrendous problem on the interstate I arrived a half hour late. Just in time to see everyone pack up their sheisse and leave. I guess none of the kids sang anyway, but I still feel terrible for missing it. Chalk it up to some idiot driver who trucked up the interstate enough to shut the entire thing down which required diverting traffic into a snarled mess. Anyway we all had fun playing in the playroom after dinner.

Tomorrow is probably the busiest day of December for us. Early tomorrow morning we head to the recreation club where Annie does dance, Madeline does Yoga. I will run while Ryan does strength training. Then we'll part so I can head over to the Candlelight luncheon while Ryan and the girls take Madeline to dance class. Madeline will meet me at the luncheon while I presume Annie will take a nap. Then we have a holiday party to attend. It's a very busy day for us, but should be full of fun. It's only around two weeks before we head off to Colorado! I am excited to see the Michelle and John's new house. Plus we always look forward to Maggie and Jack!

Maddie's Gingerbread house
The gingerbread crew

Decorating cards at the framing gallery

David striking a pose

At the bonfire

We went to the winter wonderland activities and Mary and David joined us. We waited for awhile in the carraige ride line but then decided it was worth the 20 bucks to just go on one downtown and not wait in an hour-long line.

Visit with Santa
The tree

Decorating the tree (Annie took this picture)

We went out as early as we could to get the tree and decorated it! It went pretty quickly and the tree looks great. It smells fantastic in the front room. This year we got a douglas fir.

Madeline's top 5

Maddie told me her top five desires for Christmas. Some were a little surprising to me!

1. Barbie house
2. Littlest Pet Shop house
3. Belle dress-up dress
4. Swim suit wrap/skirt
5. American Girl doll house type accessories

Tomorrow Ryan will be getting up long before the crack of dawn to participate in BLACK Friday! Woohoo!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Maddie being silly at Grandma and Grandpa's
Annie and Mary making silly faces

The clan after Thanksgiving lunch

Annie enjoying pie

Eating pie

We went to Ryan's parents house for a pre-Thanksgiving day lunch on November 23rd.

As for today, we haven't started to feast yet. We spent the morning/early afternoon at the rec. club working out and swimming. It was PACKED with people either getting ready to stuff themselves or punishing themselves post-stuffing. We'll be back tomorrow for another work-out and some pilates. I bet it will be busy tomorrow too.

I hope everyone is having a fantastic holiday!

Holiday Letter

The Alphabetical 2008 Holiday Letter
(to inform the masses of our annual behaviors)

Annalise: The spunky, energetic, slightly red-haired 2 year old started Montessori school. Her teacher tells us that she leads other groups of children around the playground and is always watching the older kids, picking up where they leave off. She loves matching, books, climbing and riding, and working on different types of puzzles.
Madeline: First grader, energetic, extremely social, photogenic, bright, people loving six year old. She enjoys weekly Spanish tutoring, yoga and dance class. She’s turning into a fantastic reader and continues to love drawing/art, Barbies/Bratz, Littlest Pet Shops, Polly Pockets and all things play-related.
Rebecca: Started a new job as a planning director, turned 33, received a chamber of commerce leadership award, and otherwise maintains order in the Horner house as house mom. Loves to bake and is training to run a half-marathon. Currently trying to manage the bucket loads of stuff that she inherited. Celebrated 10 years of marriage to Ryan.
Ryan: Was promoted at the office, turned 34, gardens, cooks and maintains the structure of the Horner house as house dad. He continues to be the plumber, electrician, architect, designer and consultant of the home. He started an Arts Council and serves as president of the board of directors.
Vacation: This year we went to New York City for Easter and participated in the Easter Day Parade. We went to Kansas City to rendezvous with family members in July, and spent eight days in Disney World followed by four days in Washington D.C. during October. Will spend Christmas in Boulder with more family!

Happy Holidays to all and to all a Good Night!

Secret's out!

Okay, it's official. Ryan was promoted! He is now the operations director for a team of approximately 45 professionals in his office. He is the new Team Leader for Team One. It's very exciting for him and we're all very proud!

BIG Secret!

Okay, this is the hottest big secret on the block. Something exciting happened for Ryan but I can't share more because I am not sure who reads this. So if you're dying to know before next Monday then call Ryan! :)

In other news: Today we spent time with Madeline at school as she worked on her family tree activity. It was fun but not nearly as extensive as we had imagined. The teacher did not give very good instructions so most of the parents/grandparents showed up with a lot more pictures than they needed. I think we'll do a big tree for home in the playroom. It will be a nice art project for the girls and pretty for the wall. Speaking of the playroom, I used my day off yesterday to rearrange the room and take out things that didn't need to be there. I am donating three or so bags, threw away a very large bag of junk and put many more bags in storage. Things are organized a little better now based on the way the girls play with things. Ryan committed to making a kitchen table for the kitchen area. Madeline did say "it would be faster to buy one" since she knows Ryan's projects take awhile.

We will be having a Thanksgiving meal with Ryan's family the Sunday before turkey day. We will spend the long holiday weekend doing the Olde German Christmas events, buying and decorating a tree, putting up holiday decorations, etc. For Christmas we will be travelling to the Jacksons and spending a week with them. We're very excited about that trip, which we will be driving.

It's a world of laughter...

Magic Kingdom under the fireworks


Spectromagic



Gigantic cookie ice cream sandwich prior to the spectromagic parade

Ryan and the girls on Main Street

Cinderella's Castle

Happy Halloween (a little late)

We did the candy circuit again this year. I've been reaping the benefits that a plethora of chocolate can provide. Namely craving for more chocolate.

In a last minute decision both girls decided, independently of each other, to be witches. Oh wait, I mean fairies (so says Madeline). I did the unthinkable this year and purchased primarily healthy treats including goldfish crackers and pretzels. I did buy a bag of york peppermint patties and m&m's to offset the healthy mode. In case you were wondering, peppermint patties are one of my personal favorites. After sorting the many bags of loot I came to the conclusion that this year's most popular candies include: twix, snickers, and 3 muskateers (does anyone really like those things?). We did receive a bundle of dum dum pops too. I'm letting the girls eat nearly as much as they want in hopes that it helps dwindle the stash faster. The funny thing about Anna is that she really just likes to try things and then tosses them in the trash. On Saturday she tried about six different thing but probably ingested a bite of candy. Madeline on the other hand carfully spaces her consumption to last as long as possible. As for me, I just periodically stuff my face with crap until I start to feel guilty. It's amazing how many mini candy bars you can eat in the space of about two minutes when my better judgment kicks in. Except that by then, it's too late and I've eaten more than I should. Thank GOD for running! I can run about 4.5 miles and burn over 400 calories and call it even.

At the end of the night we all had fun. We trick-or-treated with Maddie's friend Kara and her family. Annie said "trick or treat", "thank you" and "happy halloween" like a champ! Madeline did a good job of being polite and didn't even tell people that she was a vegetarian when they stuck bags of skittles and starburst in her bag! Woohoo! It's all about the little things.

We Made It!!!

After nearly two weeks away from home, jet setting across the continental US we made it back. My exact feeling on the subject changed by the minute as we came in for our final landing. Apparently we were flying directly into a head wind, which we felt most of the trip, but was especially evident during our descent and landing. I was again 100% convinced we would not survive that leg of the trip. For the most part my meds works but I had trouble on the flights to DC and home. None of them went very well. On the contrary however the flights to Orlando went very well and I handled them fine. I had to up the dosage to two pills per trip once we left Florida. One was definitely NOT enough. I actually considered downing a couple more pills on the last leg of the trip home. It probably would have been best if I did. I got so motion sick from all the jumping I thought I might need to use the barf bad. However, it never came to that. We survived and Grandpa drove us home. Annie cried when he left.

I will spend the next several days posting pictures and stories from our "longest vacation ever".

To briefly sum it up; it was great. We got to spend time with great friends, see and experience new things and enjoy a lot of family time.

THREE MORE DAYS

Until we voyage off on the longest vacation since college.

We had a busy day today. Ryan had a CAFA event to attend this morning at our alma mater. After that we went to the licorice store, my favorite kids clothing store, to the local outdoor mall and eventually to Ben Franklin where Madeline spent her 45 cents on candy. I wanted to get to my parents monument to change the flowers but we forgot to pack them. I'd like to get them changed soon.

Tomorrow we head over to the local pumpkin patch (if it's not raining). Monday is a holiday for me and I will be saying hail to Columbus for giving me a day off where my kids are all in school. I will probably pack for our upcoming trip to DISNEY WORLD!!!! and Washington DC. We'll get to see my friend Christiana when we're there. She's a college friend and I've never seen her place although she's lived in DC for many years. Anyway, hope all is well.

Oh, as for my exercising things are still going well. I ran almost 10k on Thursday. I plan to train for the half marathon that is being held this next May. I have a friend that is going to train with me and we'll run together.

Running Milestone

I just wanted to post my first running milestone. I ran 5k today. I've done it several times (and even further than 5k) on the tredmill at the health club, but today I ran it outside around our local lake. It was much harder to run it outside. There was a 5k "race for the cure" today for breast cancer. Anyway, I finished in about 36 minutes. The hills made it tough! Yay me! Now I am going to train for 10k. :) I don't think I will be able to do that until after the first of the year, but you never know!

And as an aside, just ten days until Disney World and DC. woohoo!

Tooth comes out!

Live action tooth removal

Checkup

Annie went to have her 2-year checkup today. She's 24 lbs, 34" tall and doing very well. She didn't like the nurses but warmed up to Dr. Rachel. She will get a flu shot right after we get back from vacation in Oct. Maddie will be getting one too. The doctor recommended a daily vitamin for Annie and I suppose if we remember to do it, she'll get one. Kindof similar to we handle Madeline's vitamins. She/we remember about half the time.

Ryan returns from Vegas tonight. Thank goodness. I haven't been able to work out for two days. I am training for a short marathon and really need to get my tush into the gym to train. This weekend I plan to run 5k around the nearest lake to our house. I heard it's a nice run. Oh, I started running. I always hated running and thought I could never run, but it turns out to be pretty easy and I actually LIKE it! HA, I think it's pretty funny myself. My ultimate goal is to run a half marathon next September. We'll see how that goes!

You say it's your birthday (party)

As you can see Annalise celebrated her #2 bithday on Sunday. Grandma is going out of town so we celebrated a little early since her actual birthday is Sept. 29th which means we'll get to do this all over again with a little home celebration next Monday. You can never have too many birthday celebrations.

She had fun and was generally clueless that it was her party. She got a Pooh bear from Uncle Ron, moon sand from Aunt Mary and David, horsey blanket from Grandma and Grandpa and bath toys from Scott, Marcie, Ethan and Caden. Part of the bath toys are little foam dress ups that stick on the side of the tub and the other is a munical set of dolphins that each make their own note so you can play songs. We played with them all in the bath last night and they are very cool. It was fun! We would have had more fun if Annie wouldn't have put a stop to everything by going #2 in the bathtub. Boy was Maddie MAD!

The rest of the weekend was busy but relaxing. Madeline had yoga, dance and a birthday party on Sat. then we went swimming together. After the birthday party on Sunday we played games at home. Annie played with her birthday gifts from us which include a shape stacker and elmo puzzle. We also gave her a Radio Flyer tricycle that has a push bar attachement. She does really well on it by herself though she needs to learn to steer.

Other items

Annie made cookies for the first time They took turns and did pretty well sharing duties
Sprinkles everywhere!
Nevermind my really messy house
They enjoyed tasting their handiwork

I almost forgot! How could I forget this. Madeline has a third loose tooth. It's the lower second left tooth. The center two are still growing in. She looks a little mangly right now and the poor thing inhereted some interesting teeth genes. Orthodontia is in her future for sure. The two top teeth are holding on strong. She has her six month checkup this week. Maddie would like the dentist to pull her loose tooth while she's there. Most likely that will be what happens.

Pics as of late

Cantelope from the garden
Annie at the State Fair

Maddie and I hung out at the art table while Ryan and Annie watched a water balloon toss

Madeline's favorite part of the fair: the birthing barn

Annie at the mall having fun with dad.


I'm trying to think of what is going on over here. It's pretty busy but seems to be settling down a little bit. Madeline started first grade and Annie still attends Montessori school. Madeline started dance class two weeks ago. She's enjoying class and I need to buy her some tan colored tap shoes. Usually they're black but I guess she's moving up in the dance world! Madeline also started kids yoga at our fitness club. She liked pretending to be animals during yoga poses. Annie will start dance class at the club next weekend.

We went to a birthday party last weekend for our friend Caden who turned two. Caden and his family are going to Disney World with us next month. We're all getting very excited. There's something like thirty days left. Annie will turn two in a couple of weeks and we'll have a birthday party for her this coming weekend. I wrapped the gifts a couple of weeks ago and they're just sitting on the fireplace. The girls have forgotten they're even there.

Ryan went to Vegas a week or so ago. He was there a couple of days and the in-laws came over to help. THANK GOODNESS! The girls are getting older now and it's easier when he leaves but things are still a little hairy since Annie is so little. Having the extra help is very much appreciated.

Work is going well. Ryan and I went to a banquet for his professional organization. I am pretty sure that the banquet hall hired a seedy bunch. I am pretty sure the bar attendant was a felon. ha ha ha My work is going well. It's extremely busy. I have planning commission this week and it will probably be long. Long and ugly. Well hopefully not ugly but let's just say I wouldn't be surprised if it was ugly. But it goes with the territory.

My workout routine has been going well. I think I mentioned before that I joined the fitness club to get fit for Disney. I quit snacking during the day and work out 5-6 days per week. I lost 7 pounds (no I wasn't trying to lose weight) and I can tell things are toning up. I go to pilates 2-3 times per week and do strength training at least 5 times each week. It seems to be going well.

Sliding

Recent picures

Classic Annie smile
Grapes from our garden
Crazy cucumber
Check out our scarab!

Dancers

Ryan took this video of the girls a few days ago. I love how Annie copies Madeline.

Savanna

Here's a quick pic of the girls cousin Savanna who lives in GA.

She has a horse named Baby (if I am remembering correctly). Madeline and Annie would love to have a pet horse! Savanna is one lucky girl!

August News

Lots going on in our neck of the woods. Madeline started school. She seems to have a very good teacher who is presently on maternity leave but will be back right around the time we leave for Disney World. Annalise is doing very well. She has a lot of totally dry days at school and uses the toilet regularly. She loves her school and is becoming very independent.

We joined a health club and are starting to increase our activity. Ryan is joining the raquetteball league and I am doing pilates and soon will be doing yoga. The girls are gearing up for kids yoga, tumbling and tijitsu (however you spell that). Annie will be doing ballet at the club and Madeline will start ballet with her studio in about two weeks. Madeline is still taking Spanish lessons with Senora Lisett. We soon hope to find an all subject tutor for Madeline to keep her challenged. Sunday school at church starts in two weeks also. That's pretty much what's going on at the homefront. The garden is still very active.

Work is busy. My assistant started last Monday and she is FANTASTIC! Things are going well. Ryan is busy with work but also with his new arts council. They are in the election of the board phase. Ryan is one of the board members and hopefully will be president. We'll see.

Garden again

Well I counted the peaches and it looks like all told we'll get around 66 peaches this year. Pretty good for its first year fruiting. Ryan canned six jars tonight because we couldn't eat them all before they got too soft. There's another 30 or so on the tree. The blackberries are turning black and are really tart. I may freeze some of those. The grapes are turning purple. Ryan tasted one tonight but the sugar content is still pretty low. We knew it would be, but it was fun watching him eat a grape from our vines. Ryan planted the second crops of beans, peas, lettuce and carrots and planted a first crop of beets. The purple beans are still going strong.

Ryan canned another 14 jars of pickles. We opened up one of the jars from two weeks ago. It's not as dilly as he would like but they are really very tasty. I like them a lot.

So far we have a large muskmelon, about three small ones. The bunnies are eating the tips off so Ryan needs to protect those somehow. We have one honeydew melon and about six butternut squashes. There are three white pumpkins out there too. The cauliflower is growing well and think the broccoli is doing well. It's the first year we've ever done that before so we're not sure how it's going. The bugs are thick in our yard because we do the organic gardening thing. We hve a lot of cucumber beetles and some other wacky bugs I don't know the name of. They seem to appear every year. This year I saw some gigantic scarabs eating watermelon off the rind as it waited to go into the compost pile. I wanted to get a picture but when I went back out they'd gone. They were the size of quarters. Something similar to that was eating the grape leaves but luckily they went somewhere else. The pear trees are supposed to bloom this fall but I am not sure if they will since it's the first full year we'e had them. We'll see in a few weeks. Ciao for now!

Goth

So today I decided to cash in my lee's nails gift certificate and get a pedicure done. The whole family went along and I agreed to let Madeline get her fingernails painted. It was a busy place. It was so inexpensive that I decided to get my nails done too. While Madeline and I were having our nails painted I noticed a young woman next to me. She was dressed in all black, her hair was bleached as blonde as it could get and cut very short. I would describe her look as Gothic. But there she was sitting in the nail salon getting a manicure. She had her nails painted black. Never in a million years would I have ever thought I'd see a Gothic dressed person getting their nails painted black at a nail salon. Not that I believe Goth to be synonomous with unclean or unkept, but I just never expected they'd get their nails done at a prim and proper salon. It seemed very oxymoronic to me, but hey it just goes to show that you can learn something new everyday! Later during my pedicure a guy came in an had a pedi done with his wife. I told Ryan he needed to get one done too! LOL

Garden Today

Maters
Peaches (so far picked around 23)

Uh, the peaches are soooo good. It's pretty cool to pick peaches off your own tree and eat them right then and there. Planning on planting a couple more of those suckers!

Meeeeee!

Annie never ceases to amaze us. While we were all sitting together on our bed getting the girls ready for bedtime someone asked a question like this... "who wants to go..." Annie shot up her hand really fast and shouted "Meeeee". It was just about the cutest thing since Madeline was a baby. So we proceeded to ask more things like "who..." and Annie never failed to shoot up her hand and shout "meee!". I told Ryan we needed to get it on video. I will try to get that added here in the next day or so.

In other news we found out our neighbor lost his sister at 51 years and our good friends the Riviera's are leaving for a year to help out with a family need in New Jersey. We'll be keeping all of them in our thoughts in the coming days.

As for work, I may be on the edge of wishing I was actually not working there. We'll see how it pans out. I knew the day would come when my power and endurance were tested and that day is definitely here. We'll see who the last person standing is and how many people are there to support me. I just hope that I don't get an ulcer from the ordeal. Tomorrow I get a nice deep tissue massage to help ease the stress. It may become a regular appointment.

Visit to Kansas City

Jack got his hair cut into a very cool do
The girls played in the fountain around crowne center
At the game
Maggie got a new cut too, very cute!
Michelle playing with Madeline's new Royals bat

We went to KC earlier this month around July 11th. We had a great visit with the Jacksons. Other relatives went too. Friday we left early, met the Jacksons at the Coco Keys hotel and hung out before and after the Royal's game. Saturday we swam most of the day. Saturday evening we went to the Plaza for dinner and a little shopping. Sunday we had breakfast and all went our merry ways. It was fun!

Fair time

County fair rides
Annie had a great time
Ryan is a canning foo.
He canned seven quart jars of peaches